Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Most reliable brand of scope for hunting?

There is no perfect anything.

But if my life depended on it, a S&B would certainly be high in the top 2...

If money was no object, I'd get a S&B or a US Optics scope, but that being said, for 95% of most hunting conditions I could do just fine with a Burris Fullfield II or similar and come out under $200.

http://randywakeman.com/Burris-Fullfield-E1-Riflescopes.htm

It is an etched reticle, so "tougher" if anything.

Whose military?

Say it isn't so Randy........

Great scope for a couple hundred, as far as I'm concerned.

As far as "breaking scopes," the ones that didn't work out of the box I can't claim to have broken, I don't think they ever worked.

I've had three Leupolds (in a row) that failed to hold zero within the first 25 shots. Other than that, I did manage to shoot a Sightron SII loose. It developed a little over an MOA of reticle float, but to be fair . . . that was after 6000 rounds of 300 grain bullets at 2200 - 2350 fps. And, Sightron instantly replaced it-- N/C.

Ours...

If they use Swaro's I have not heard of it.

I always found it amazing that (too many) clients would spend 20G's on a safari to africa and top their rifles with a cheap nasty scope! The mind boggles! So many great choices out there...cheap will cost you more in the long run!

With all due respect Bob, the use or lack of by the military doesn't really tell you much. I spent enough time in the Marine Corps to realize that politics and cronyism have at least as much to do with the military procurement system as any fitness for the intended use.

For $200 bucks it surprised me it was not half bad and light as well! Especially if its in a QD mount and the rifle has back up iron sightS!

A few years ago, I went to the pusher's shop with enough money in my pocket to purchase Zeiss, Swarovski, or Lica (don't know if they still do scopes or not). I looked over everything they had, and bought a US made FF II 3-9 with the fairly new Burris plex. This was for a .270. At $200, there was still enough left to do something else if it did not work. So far I have not been disappointed. I recently moved it to a Mini-14 RR that will likely test it more because of the beating the action imparts on the return to battery. If this purchase had been for a DG heavy hitter, I would have made a different choice.

Not all of us require $1500-2000 scopes on EVERYTHING to get along just fine! I am just not mad enough at the game I will likely encounter to worry about enough light gathering ability to stay afield another few minutes. When I was much younger, Bill Weaver assisted me in killing a lot of stuff with his working man's priced glass.

If most of you would be honest, the stuff you extolling the virtues of is snobbery. I have engaged in this in the past. My Rolex keeps good time (not all do), but so does my Timex Iron Man. My Browning Pigeon Grade shotgun gives me great pleasure, but I have an 870 and a Binelli set up with the same drop and cast off that work just as well. I bought my Zeiss scopes from a friend needing money at a good price and they are indeed fine glass (not on heavy hitters so untested in that regard), but my remaining El Paso Weaver, Leupold, and Burris scopes also get the job done. Heck, I even still have a Lyman All-American and some nondescript Bushnell that direct bullets to where I want them to go. I have a vintage Leupold 3X that has been unemployed for some time that is going on a No. 1 .45-70. We will see how that works out. Best wishes, jack

CH:No offense taken...... Well geeezz...you would think they test the damn things....seems all I ever see are Schmidts and NF....

Dhagaboy,

I don't know what you mean by a "nasty" scope, but I had an interesting adventure with an $800 and a $150 scope on my first safari.

This was in 1993, and I was the guest of a European scope company. I put one of their $800 3-9x's on my .375 here in the U.S., and back then there weren't many $800 scopes on the market. I only collimated it here in the U.S., since I knew the rifle would have to be shot at a target anyway when arriving.

This rifle is very accurate, so once over there it only took half-a-dozen rounds to put a couple in the right place on the target. Then I started hunting, and wounding or missing game. This seemed odd, so I shot the rifle on paper again. With four shots it made a group an inch in height and about 15" wide. The horizontal adjustment had totally gone.

Luckily, I'd brought along the 4x Leupold (at that time about $150 new) that normally was on the rifle--and the Swarovski guy that came along was down with some sort of intestinal distress. I put the Leupold on the .375 and finished the safari with it, never missing or wounding again.

I've since had two more of the same brand of 3-9x break from recoil on other rifles, and one was never on anything bigger than a .300 magnum.

Oh, and at the end of that first safari I took the 4x Leupold off my rifle and gave it to the PH, partly because I'd notcied that he had a 4x Leupold on his .375. He almost kissed my feet.

Great story, John. I have three of those 4X Leupolds, one of which is an old M8 I bought in 1986. I shudder to think of the knocks it's taken and held zero. E

I have a couple of the fixed 6x Leupolds, that are darn near indestructible.

Was it a Swarovski scope that failed and if not what brand?

Thanks

Yea! Why do you guys tease us?

JB: Why doesn't that story shock me......?

...because you've heard it for almost 20 years from him ?